As described, the invention relates generally to the field of semiconductor fabrication and engineering and in particular to formation of p-n homogeneous junctions from a solution.
There is an absence of p-n homogeneous junctions with semiconducting metal oxides because most semiconducting metal oxides are intrinsically dominated by one type of charge carrier, such that a particular metal oxide is either n-type or p-type. As a result, formation of a p-n junction using a semiconducting metal oxide is typically made of two different semiconducting metal oxides. For example, n-type zinc oxide (ZnO) is deposited on p-type cuprous oxide (Cu2O) to form a heterogeneous p-n junction (hetero-junction). Unfortunately, when such hetero-junctions are used in photovoltaic solar cells, they have a low conversion efficiency. A solar cell made on a ZnO/Cu2O p-n hetero-junction has only a 2% efficiency.